Feedback: Conferring with Teachers about
Performance
I.
Interpersonal Communication Skills
Clinical educators require strong interpersonal skills in order to establish a supportive
relationship with the developing teacher, one which will enhance the teacher’s selfesteem and will enable the clinical educators to carry out the Formative Process. The
activities involved in conferring with developing teachers are oriented toward
cooperative problem solving, with the ultimate goal of developing a teacher who is
capable of independent problem solving. A communicative atmosphere is established
when the clinical educator attends to the attitudes and behaviors of the developing
teacher. Three key elements that underlie effective interactive communication are:
1. Attending: Active listening techniques such as maintaining eye contact,
clarifying understanding, open-ended exploration, addressing feelings.
2. Responding: Techniques that convey genuine interest, express open
acceptance in a non-judgmental manner.
3. Facilitating: Techniques that express honest feedback and encouragement.
The power of influence cannot simply be given to clinical educators through title, time,
or knowledge. Though developing teachers respect such qualities, it is the trust earned
through a reciprocal exchange of personalized professional concerns that makes
possible the positive influence and leadership of the clinical educator team member.
The communication of clinical educators is facilitated by consistent use of these
Interpersonal Communication Skills:
Clarification: Questions or statements used to gain further information about how the
developing teacher is thinking.
Perception Checking: Questions or statements used to gain further information about
how the developing teacher is responding emotionally.
Empathy: Statements that identify with and express understanding of the feelings,
situation or motives of the developing teacher.
Concrete Examples: Statements that refer to specific events, behaviors or concepts
that have been observed.
Influence that originates in trust motivates others to seek, excel, and grow. Imposed
influence that comes simply from position and authority often fails to encourage growth
in developing professionals.
II.
Clinical Educator Supervision Styles
The clinical educator’s style may be relatively direct or indirect, depending on the task at
hand and the relationship between the clinical educator and the developing teacher.
Directive clinical educators tend to give their attention to telling developing teachers
what their strengths and weaknesses are and how to improve their performance. Telling
is usually a more efficient means of identifying problem areas and strategies to
remediate them. With direct supervision, however, it is often the case that little attention
is given to the developing teacher’s self-esteem or self-evaluation skills. Indirect
supervision, on the other hand, involves both developing teachers and clinical educators
in recognizing problem areas and deducing possible solutions. With this indirect style,
developing teachers tend to feel more in control of their performance, accept ownership
for the diagnosis and intervention strategies, and develop self-evaluation skills.
Productive interpersonal work seems to be achieved best through a balance between
energy directed toward the task of improving developing teachers’ teaching and energy
directed toward establishing a good interpersonal relationship among team members.
Effective supervision is a combination of both direct and indirect approaches. The
results of at least on study (Blumberg, 1968) indicate that teachers positively evaluated
their supervisory interpersonal relations when they perceived their supervisor’s behavior
as being high direct, high indirect (Style A) or low direct, high indirect (Style C).
How the degree of directness is balanced with indirect approaches appears to be a
function of the skill level of the developing teacher. Copeland (1982) points out that
developing teachers, early in their internship, tend to prefer a more directive style of
supervision. However, as their skills and confidence improve, they begin to show a
preference for greater degrees of indirectness by their supervisors.
Ill.
Procedures for Conducting Effective Conferences General
General Procedures for Conferences with Developing Teachers
The trust developed through interpersonal relations is fundamental to the success of the
conferences among team members that take place throughout the supervisory
sequence. During this sequence, the focus of the conferences will shift from
interpersonal relations to the improvement of teaching performance. Initially, conferences involve discussing team members’ roles, scheduling further conferences
and observations, and noting important classroom variables (i.e., types of student,
classroom rules and schedules, etc.). After the first few weeks, however, conferences
focus on assisting developing teachers in improving their teaching and management
performance. Through this collaboration, the clinical team and teacher set priorities for
improving teaching performance.
Pre-observation Conference Procedures
This collaborative, decision-making framework is manifested in two types of
conferences during the clinical process: The pre-observation conference, and the postobservation conference. During the pre-observation conference that occurs at the
beginning of the clinical cycle, team members focus on obtaining a baseline measure of
key situational variables involving the students and developing teacher. At this point, the
team members will discuss anecdotal observations of the members, most importantly
those of the developing teacher. Developing teachers’ concerns may set the agenda for
the observation by clinical educators. Any additional areas to which the observer will
attend (e.g., planning, student conduct, management of classroom procedures,
presentation of instructional material, building rapport) should be overviewed with the
developing teacher.
Next, the means for collecting data in these areas need to be devised, selected, or
reviewed. In systematic observation models, some form of recording data is used to
monitor behavior and to provide feedback. Recordings of teacher behavior can take a
variety of forms.
If a pre-designed recording instrument is to be used (e.g., GTOI) then the team
members should simply review the target behaviors on the instrument and the recording
method to be used. If an informal instrument is to be designed and used, the team
should design the form and recording method together, incorporating the principles of
interpersonal communication and participative decision making.
The final step in the pre-observation conference is to schedule the specific time and
place of the observation and post-observation conference. This helps to ensure clear
communication of when and how interactions are to occur. The observation should be
scheduled as soon after the pre-observation conference as possible.
Post-observation Conference Procedures
The post-observation conference is a critical component of the Formative Process
because of its recurrence throughout the clinical experience and the substantive nature
of the conference. During the post-observation conference, feedback on observations is
provided. This critical step provides developing teachers with objective data reflecting
their behavior in the classroom. Situation-specific feedback regarding teaching
performance is an effective means to assist developing teachers in improving their
skills. Observers should present the data and explain how it was collected but should
avoid making any value judgments about the developing teacher’s performance. Both
the observer(s) and the developing teacher should then discuss the data and analyze it
to discern any recognizable patterns. Patterns in the data may reflect when a specific
behavior occurs in the context of any antecedent or consequent events. For instance,
every time the developing teacher sits at this desk during seatwork assignments, the
noise level may begin to rise. Sitting at the desk away from the students may result in
increased talking by students. This may become evident to the observer(s) and
developing teacher when a recurring pattern is noted on the data record. As developing
teachers become more skilled at analyzing data, more responsibility should be shifted to
them for identifying patterns with increasingly less direction from clinical educators. This
gradual fading process will help developing teachers to develop self-evaluation skills.
In addition, by analyzing the data with developing teachers and helping them to identify
noticeable patterns, clinical educators create an atmosphere that is less defensive and
more productive in locating problems and devising solutions. Once patterns of
behaviors have been identified, team members need to specify those behaviors the
teacher will want to maintain or increase and those behaviors the teacher will want to
reduce or eliminate. Here again, the emphasis is on stating target behaviors that the
team will focus on in the future.
A parallel is the use of behavioral objectives to specify the goals of the supervised
clinical experience. Team members should determine alternative strategies for
modifying the developing teacher’s behavior. These strategies may involve the
developing teacher in observing other teachers or researching other potential strategies,
methods or materials to be used in the classroom.
The next step is to select or design the observation instrument to be used in the next
observation. This procedure follows the same steps as outlined for the pre-observation
conference.
Finally, the responsibilities of each member for the next observation and conference
should be documented. For instance, if the strategies for changing the developing
teacher’s behavior include the clinical educator modeling a specific teaching technique,
then arrangements for doing that should be made. If the clinical educator is to lend the
developing teacher some reference books, then the arrangements for getting those
books to the developing teacher need to be made. This documentation helps to insure
that the activities identified by the team are carried out. Included within this step is the
scheduling of the next observation and conference.
Specific Procedures for Reflection and Analysis of Conferences
An important aspect of the conference process occurs without the developing teacher.
After each observation, the observer needs to prepare for the post-observation
conference by reflecting on what has occurred in the observation and by determining
how the data will be presented to the developing teacher. The first step is to construct a
data display so that the information can be communicated clearly to the developing
teacher. Tallies may be summed, notes may be more clearly written, and the overall
appearance of the observation record should be made legible.
Behavior patterns should be identified so that the observer may more easily guide the
developing teacher in recognizing noticeable patterns. The data from the latest
observation should also be examined in light of previous observation data in order to
determine if patterns are emerging across observations, the observer should also
determine if criteria for success were satisfied or not. Finally, summary statements
should be written down in order to organize thoughts, perceptions, and strategies.
The information derived from these steps is for the benefit of the observer in working
with developing teachers in post-observation conferences. Observers should be careful
not to walk into a post-observation conference and immediately disclose their
perceptions or judgments of the data. Instead they should keep the written
documentation for their own records, but use the content in helping to guide developing
teachers to drawing their own conclusions about what the data indicate.
Another step in the clinical process is the post-observation analysis. During this step,
clinical educators review their own performance throughout the clinical process and the
performance of the other team members as it relates to the conferences held.
Successful conferencing strategies as well unsuccessful strategies should be defined.